A Close Call

Sitting on the edge of the fountain, Lucy ran her hand through the water, creating a little wave. She watched as it rippled the surface, traveling to the opposite side, causing the paper boats floating there to bob up and down.

The water was cool, refreshing on a day as humid and sticky as this one. Lucy wiggled her fingers in the fountain, enjoying the slight breeze that had miraculously appeared. Something hit her shoe and Lucy snapped back to reality. She needed to be alert, on her guard. Anything could happen. She had almost let herself relax.

Lucy scanned the park. She spotted a pink tank top walking a short distance away, a small purple tutu next to it. Perfect, she had located two out of the five.

Hearing a noise to her left she turned swiftly. Another was coming straight for her. She braced herself.

Fortunately, he skidded to a stop just shy of ramming full speed into her.

“Sorry Miss Lucy!”

“It’s okay Ritchie.” Lucy smiled, handing him his toy truck back. “It’s almost time to go, alright buddy?”

Ritchie ran off without answering. He’d heard her and he’d come when she called.

She resumed her search. A striped tee shirt was on the swings. Four out of five. Now to find Ro.

Lucy stood up, grabbing her whistle. She blew two loud, harsh tweets and eight little legs came hurrying towards her.

“Time to go already?” the boy in the striped shirt asked quietly.

“It is, sorry Owen” she apologized.

“...tired,” the girl in the tutu yawned.

“I know. We’ll be able to go as soon as I find your sister, Millie.” She looked around again. “No one has seen her?” she asked, turning back to the kids, most of whom had found seats on the edge of the fountain. Ritchie had just plopped down right where he had been standing.

“She walked with me and Millie to get cotton candy, then headed toward those trees,” said Harper.

“Everyone stay here. Harper, you’re in charge.” Lucy sighed.

She took off at a substantial speed towards the trees, it was almost 5:30 and she needed to have the kids home by 5:45, so she could get home and change. She had a big night ahead.

She reached the grove unwinded. She ran a few miles in the park each morning. Plus, she had endurance training courtesy of her actual job. Babysitting was just a side gig.

Actually, it was both. The Matthews were both lovely children and great sources of intel. Their father, a tech mogul, worked at a company connected to a potential threat. His company’s new project happened to be a collaboration between his company and the suspicious organization. She could keep an eye on the situation and earn some money. Not a bad cover.

Lucy scoured the trees, but didn’t see anything. She had excellent eyesight but Rowan Matthews was more elusive than some of the enemy agents she came up against.

“Rowan?!” she called.

“Come on Ro, it’s time to go!” She didn’t have time for this. It was at that moment that she heard a rustling in a nearby tree. She headed towards it but before she had reached it she heard a crack. She could see it in her head, as it played out. Despite all her training, she could only run so fast and she calculated that she wouldn't reach the tree before Ro hit the ground.

She really didn’t want to have to take her to the hospital, that wouldn’t look good and she really couldn’t miss her appointment that evening. But she didn’t see many other options besides running as fast as she could and praying gravity decided to be a little weaker today.

She was nearly there but Ro was nearly on the ground. Suddenly a boy spun out from behind the tree, out of nowhere and caught Ro before she hit the ground. Lucy reached them seconds later.

She was just the slightest bit out of breath. The boy seemed unfazed.

“Are you okay?” he asked Ro kindly. She nodded, stunned into silence, which was rare for her.

“Hi. Is she yours?” he asked, noticing Lucy.

“Yeah.” Lucy breathed a sigh of relief. “ I mean, she’s not my kid. I’m her...babysitter.”

“Right.” The boy smiled as if this was obvious. Lucy groaned inwardly. She was cool under pressure on a mission but high stress situations outside of work were different. Her words were getting jumbled up. Plus, there was something strange going on here. She squinted at the boy.

What were the chances this guy had just been standing behind that tree and could leap out and catch Ro at the last second? If he had come running from somewhere else, how did he get there that fast? Who has those kinds of reflexes?

“Okay, well. Here you go.” He smiled as he handed Ro off to Lucy. She took her, balancing her on her hip.

“Thank you”

“No problem”

Lucy looked at Ro disapprovingly.

“No more running off, okay, missy?” Ro nodded earnestly.

“Listen to your babysitter, she’s smart!” the boy advised Ro.

“Okay!” Ro smiled sweetly. Sure, when she had an audience she was a little angel. She waved to the boy as he made his way back to wherever he had materialized from.

“I blew the whistle” Lucy remarked as she carried Ro back across the field.

“I didn’t hear it”

“I know you didn’t. You were in a tree” Lucy tried to keep calm.

“Are you mad?” Ro asked.

“No.” Lucy sighed. “But I wish you’d stay with your sister.” Then she asked, “Why am I carrying you? You’re a big girl, you can walk.”

“Because I’m hurt,” Ro replied, sticking her lip out.

“You are not! That boy caught you. You’re fine.”

“That was cool!” Ro cheered.

“Yeah,” Lucy agreed, deep in thought. Still, something had been off about it.

With all the kids rounded up, Lucy hurried them to the nearest subway station, and they made their way home. She only had to pull Ro down off the overhead handrail, where she had been swinging like a monkey, once. She considered that a win.

With the kids home, Lucy got back on the subway. There was an open seat and Lucy took it. Her hand made its way to her pocket subconsciously. The flash drive was still there. She may or may not have downloaded some files before she left the kids’ penthouse for the day.

Fortunately, the ride home was short; she had under an hour to get ready. Lucy lived in a run down apartment building whose owners seemed to care as little about renting to a teenager as they did about the maintenance of their building. Normally, Lucy had to stay with a family, but here she had been given permission to live alone. In some ways it made her job easier.

She had picked out her dress that morning, and she knew what she wanted to do with her makeup, that left hair. She decided to pull her straight blond hair back in an updo, leaving a few tendrils down, which she then curled. She had worn the same look to a gala in Paris and it had worked out well. Everyone had suspected she was much older than she really was, which was an advantage most missions.

After getting ready quickly it was back to the subway. She headed uptown. The sun was setting when she had gone underground, by the time she emerged it was dark. She got off at her stop walking in heels to the building. Lucy went to the nearest street corner and pushed the button to request to cross the street. Then back to the building, she heard a click and tugged the door open.

Lucy tied her mask on before entering.

She made her way down a musty hallway. Getting on the elevator, she pressed the button for the 11th floor.

When she got off the elevator she could hear music. This would be fun.

At the end of the hallway stood a large, heavy door, the kind found on vaults. She yanked it open with ease. Before her was a room of people dressed to the nines, all in masks like hers, it was a masquerade ball afterall. Music pulsed, and lights danced about, illuminating the room. Still, it was dark and with the masks it was hard to make out faces. Lucy’s contact would be wearing a polka dot bowtie.

Glancing at the dance floor, she decided to make her way towards the refreshments. The contact hadn’t given a specific location or time, which annoyed Lucy. She was meticulous and appreciated details.

Scooping herself some punch, she felt a tap on her shoulder. She spun around. She had expected to have to stand there half the night but there he was: polka dot bowtie and all.

In his hand he held a drink, which he offered to her with a nod.

Lucy accepted it with her free hand. She glanced between the merlot and the punch with rainbow sherbet before putting the wine on the table beside her. That was an easy choice. The wine was simply the signal that he was her contact.

“I have the flash drive” she said, reaching up and slipping it out of her hair. Another plus of an updo.

“Fantastic,” he smiled.

Lucy turned to go, that was all that she’d needed to do, but the contact grabbed her arm. She turned around abruptly and he let go.

“Um, would you like to dance?”

“Sure” Lucy shrugged.

The contact smiled, taking her hand gently and leading them onto the dance floor. It wasn’t exactly the kind of music to slow dance to, but they had a good time. After a few songs, the contact spoke again.

“Would you like to get out of here?”

Lucy raised her eyebrows.

“...on a walk!” he added, realizing his comment could be misinterpreted.

Lucy thought about it for a moment before nodding. She had completed the mission, she had no curfew, what she did the rest of the night was up to her.

The contact was still holding her hand and didn’t seem to be planning to let go anytime soon. They left the building and wandered the streets together. Lucy became so absorbed by her mysterious companion that she barely paid attention to where they were. It wasn’t until he asked her if she wanted to have a seat that she realized they were back in the park she had left only hours earlier. Her feet did hurt a bit, wandering the city in heels would do that to you. They sat down on the edge of the fountain. He reached up to take his mask off. She did the same.

She leaned forward, struggling with the knot. When she looked up, she inhaled sharply. Before her sat the boy from the park. Had he been watching her?

“You?”

“Me,” he smiled bemused.

“I recognized you the minute we met up”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“We were having fun. Don't really know...can’t explain it. Maybe it’s part of my training?” He shrugged.

Lucy wanted to say more but she wasn’t sure what it was that she wanted to say.

The boy seemed to notice this.

“You can yell at me if you want to, but if you’re planning on running off; first, I’d lose the heels, second, don’t leave yet. I have something else to tell you.”

His slight smile bugged Lucy.

“What?”

“You look very nice tonight.”

Lucy almost pushed him into the fountain.

“Annnd, your next mission is at Matthew Tech. With me”

Lucy sat silently, rooted to her seat.

Finally she replied, “Well then, I suppose we should get to know each other.”

“I have nowhere to be”

“Neither do I.”